Reservation for Muslims

The left and the BJP have united to oppose reservation of 50% seats for Muslims in Aligarh Muslim University. Their reasons are, of course, different. The left is against any religion-based reservation, for it is against the concept of secularism that they claim to espouse more than any body else in the country. The BJP’s opposition is intriguing. Just over a year ago the party conferred on Jamia Hamdard the status of a minority institution which can reserve 50% seats for Muslims in all courses. Then why this opposition to AMU’s reservation? The reason is political indeed. It feels Congress, which is in power at the centre, will make political capital out of it and try to win back the Muslim vote bank which has deserted it in northern India.

The left has become an oddity both nationally and internationally. They want us champion the ‘philosophy’ of controlled economy in this globalized or fast globalizing world. They are happy with caste-based reservation but oppose the one based on religion. How caste politics is better than communal one? Moreover, why should one think that all caste-based or communal exercises are necessarily wrong. How this black and white approach can be justified in the complex world we are living in?

AMU’s reservation, for example, is to promote merit and widen or strengthen the national character of the university. Because of its quota policy for internal and external students the university had acquired not only a regional character but was also guilty of promoting the less meritorious as it had made the competition very easy for its internal students. The new reservation policy treats internal and external Muslim students on equal terms and has thus widened the scope of competition. Now instead of few hundred internal students, a great majority of whom is Muslims, thousands of Muslims from other institutions will also compete for admission to medical and engineering courses. This will not only make the competition tough but would also encourage merit on a wider scale. What is wrong with this policy or “communal exercise”? It is the time the left exhibited maturity and abandoned its black and white approach to secularism.

Reservation or affirmative action has always been a subject of debate. Conceded in most cases, barring at least the present AMU example, it has been against merit. But the intellectual class that opposes affirmative action has never come out with an alternative programme for speedy development of the downtrodden. In the absence of such alternatives people would carry on with the one available to them. What is, then, wrong with the Muslim practice of or demand for reservation?

The Muslim plight is pretty well-known today. Educationally and economically they are as backward as the Dalits or the tribals and the scheduled castes. How this backward community can be asked to compete with a majority which is far more advanced educationally and economically? Affirmative action for Muslims, therefore, is the need of the hour.

Just 50% reservation for Muslims in Aligarh, which is more a case of promoting merit, is not enough. All Muslims can not study at Aligarh, nor is it possible for the Muslim community to set up as many AMUs as required to meet its educational needs. The need of the hour, therefore, is to introduce a reservation policy that the Andhra Pradesh government seems set to be implementing.

Five or more percent reservation for Muslims in jobs and educational institutions is, no doubt, a courageous and commendable step. This would surely help the Muslim community in Andhra Pradesh. One hopes the Congress governments in other states such as Assam, Maharashtra, Karnakata, Haryana etc. will follow this policy and make provisions for Muslim reservation in jobs and educational institutions.

While reservation in higher education is welcome, one should not lose the sight of the larger Muslim reality which is characterized by pervasive illiteracy and high dropout ratio. There is a reason behind this state of affairs which must be analysed deeply. Muslims are usually poor, and in a majority of cases their children have access only to government run primary schools or Makatib, small schools run by Muslims. The atmosphere in such schools is not congenial or conducive for quality education, to say the least. Moreover, the parents whose wards study in these schools are also either illiterate or poorly educated. These poor students, therefore, do not get an educationally enriching and attractive atmosphere either at home or in the school. The result is that they lose interest and drop out early. If this situation continued unabated, the purpose of Muslim reservation in institutions of higher learning will surely be defeated. For in all likelihood there would not be enough Muslims to fill the seats being offered to them by colleges and universities. The community, therefore, needs to also work for improving the standard of its education at primary and secondary levels. An educational renaissance or awareness campaign needs to be launched. Besides efforts must also be made to improve the economic conditions of Muslims so as to enable them to send their children to schools.

[June, 2005]